
Qass. 
Book. 



AN E IT L O G y 




'GRAHAM LINCOLN 



SIXTEENTH PHESIDEXT OF THE ENITED STATES, 

PRONOUNCED BY THE ■y* ** 



HON. CHARLES B. SEDGAVICK, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



OBSEQUIES AT SYKACUSE, 



-A.pril lUtlx, l«Oo. 



SYRACUSE: 

THE PAII.Y .jni'UNAL 8TKAM HOOK AM) JOB OFFICK. 
IHCi. 



* 




ABRAHAM LfflCOM 



SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



PRONOUNCED BT THE 



HON. CHAELES B. SEDGWICK, 



ON THE OCCASION OP THE 



OBSEQUIES AT SYEACUSE, 



^pril 19th, 1865. 



SYEACUSE: 

THK DAILY JOURNAL STEAM BOOK AJSD JOB OFFICE. 



^^^ 



• ^V ' ' ^. 



J 




A.nsr EULOGY 



Fellow Citizens: — 

On this day the obsequies of Abraham 
Lincoln, late President of the United States, are being 
celebrated in the Capital of the Nation, Slowly and sadly, 
amid the tears and lamentations of the people, and the great 
throbs of a mighty Republic's heart, the long procession 
moves, to bear his mortal remains to their final resting place 
in that distant town upon the Western prairies. That to 
him greenest spot of all the earth was his home, and there 
a little more than four years ago he bade adieu to fireside 
enjoyments and home-born happiness, to assume the robes 
of office and the cares of state. His touching farewell to 
his friends and neighbors at his departure, was full of pa- 
thetic tenderness and prophetic sadness. He foresaw too 
plainly that he was launching his frail bark upon a sea at 
all tiiiies treacherous and troubled, but then lashed into ten- 
fold fury by the storm. He went at the call of duty to 
the post of danger, and although wrecked, his life is by no 
means lost. 

One week ago, full of life and hope, he was laboririg with 
cheerful heart for the public welfare, and the dark clouds 
of rebellion and treason, which during his whole administra- 
tion Jiad lowered al)oVe, were just beginning to lift and give 
assurance that the stars were shining beyond. To-day — 

" Two bands upon the breast, 
And labor's done ; 
Two pale feet crossed in rest — 
The race is won." 

To-day labor ceases in every department of public busi- 
ness ; from every fortress and military post the loud-mouthed 
cannon bellow ibrtli the sounds of sorrow ; from every ship 
and naval station float the drooping emldems of mourning \ 
to-day a great peojile, flocking to the tcm])les and altars of 
their religion, humble themselves before the Almighty Fa- 
ther, who has afHi(!ted them with this great sorrow ; to-day 
from the lowly cabins of labor, from the huts of the oppress- 
ed, break forth lamentations and sorrow for him who has 



4: AN EULOGY ON 

been the humble instrument of Providence in the salvation 
of the state, and in breaking the heavy yoke of bondage. 

To-day, too, we have assembled to mingle our tears with 
the Nation's — to pay the last sad tribute to a public bene- 
factor — to help build that great monument of grateful but 
broken hearts to his memory, which shall 

" To such a name, for ages long 
To sucli a name, 

Preserve a broad approach of fame 
And ever-ringing avenues of song." 

Five years ago a party convention assembled at Chicago 
and presented Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for Presi- 
dent of the United States. lie was a man of humble origin 
— of limited education — of unpolished manners. Although 
he had been several times elected to the Legislature of his 
adopted State, and had held for a single term a seat in 
Congress, he was comparatively inexperienced in politics 
and unknown as a politician to the body of electors. He 
was better known as an able debater before popular assem- 
blages by his canvass for the Senatorship of Illinois against 
another distinguished citizen of the State. 

His principal rival before the convention was an eminent 
citizen of our own State, strikingly unlike Mr. Lincoln in 
many respects. lie was a trained, experienced and educated 
politician. Born in affluence — liberally educated, culti- 
vated by study and travel, polished by much intercourse 
with refined society, and familiar from long use with public 
affairs. 

The state of the country at the time of Mr. Lincoln's first 
election was peculiar. Unwisely, as I think it will now be 
generally conceded, our fathers had failed in courage to carry 
their declared principles to their logical conclusion in fram- 
ino; their constitution of government. That weakness re- 
suited in the establishment of an aristocratic class. That 
class, weak at first and barely tolerated from the supposed 
necessities of our condition, as time progressed became strong 
and insolent. Tliey became rich and prosperous upon the 
labor and acquisitions of an enslaved class. The acquisition 
of territory increased their political power, and the mono- 
poly of a great commercial staple continually added to their 
wealth. They crowded the navy and army with officers, 
filled all the avenues to civil promotion, and finally acquired 
and for many years maintained the absolute control of po- 
litical affairs. AVith- increasing power came increased de- 
mands, until finally absolute protection for slavery under 
the Federal Constitution and laws was aiinounced to be the 
price of continued Union and peace. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 5 

The i>urty M'liich supported Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency 
ill 1860, held no radical or extreme opinions on the subject 
of slavery. Their avowed policy was to restrict it to its then 
limits, and to maintain the freedom of the National Territo- 
tories. ]\Iany adherents and supporters of the Kepublican 
party were much more radical in their sentiments ; but Mr. 
LiNcx)LN himself, as he clearly announced in the debates to 
which allusion has been made, held the most moderate 
views, and was disposed, although he had the clearest con- 
victions of the dangers and wrongs of slavery, to yield to it 
all its constitutional rights. 

There wa^ another party, under the lead of Mr. Douglas, 
standing upon the middle ground that the people of the 
Territories themselves should be at liberty to choose and 
regulate their own condition in respect to slavery. 

The result of the election was the choice of Mr. Lincoln 
as President, and he was so declared under the forms of the 
Constitution and laws. 

Immediately upon the announcement of this result, the 
aristocracy proceeded to carry their threats into execution. 

On the 20th day of December, 1800, the South Carolina 
Convention passed an ordinance repealing the ordinance of 
1788, by which that State adopted the Constitution of the 
United States, and declared the Union dissolved, and that 
State sovereign and independent. 

In January succeeding, this example was followed by a 
convention of the people of the State of Alabama, which, by 
a like ordinance, declared her withdrawn from the Union, 
and resumed and vested in the people of the State of Ala- 
bama all the powers theretofore delegated by her to the 
General Government. At the same time they invited a 
convention of the slave States to assemble at Montgomery 
on the succeeding 4th of February to form a provisional or 
permanent government. 

During the same month the States of Georgia and Loui- 
siana passed ordinances of secession, repealing the laws and 
ordinances by which the Federal Constitution had been 
adopted, and declaring the Union dissolved. 

Texas, Florida and Mississippi soon followed, and the re- 
presentatives from these several States and their Senators 
in the Congress of the United States soon withdrew from 
their places, leaving these States unrepresented. 

In February a Convention met at Montgomery, under the 
invitation of the Alabama Convention, and there framed a 
Constitution fur a provisional government, to continue one 
year from the inauguration of their President, or until a 
permanent Constitution should be framed and a government 
put in operation. 



6 AN EULOGY ON 

Under this Constitutiou they proceeded to organize a 
provisional government, and elected and inangurated Jeffer- 
son Davis as President, and elected the officers provided 
for, and put in operation all the departments of government. 

Afterwards a permanent government was organized and a 
constitution adopted, including several other States, M'hich, 
by the consent of their people, had joined this Confederacy, 
and that government has maintained itself by force of arms 
until this day. 

Simultaneous with these movements for the foundation of 
a new government, the State authorities favoring this insur- 
rectionary movement seized all or nearly all the fortresses, 
arsenals, ship-yards, custom-houses, and- other public pro- 
perty of the Federal Government, and held them by force 
as against the General Government until they were turned 
over to the possession of the rebel government. 

Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, was occupied 
by the brave Major Anderson, with an insufficient and poorly 
supplied garrison. As early as the 9th of January, 1861. 
an unarmed steamer, the Star of the West, sent by the Gen- 
eral Government with ];)rovisions and reinforcements under 
the American flag, was fired upon by batteries under the 
Palmetto flag and driven back. 

The result of these treasonable proceedings, which met 
with no resistance, and hardly with a remonstrance from the 
timid, feeble, irresolute, if not corrupt and traitorous Presi- 
dent Buchanan, was — 

1st — The complete organization of a separate and de facto 
independent government, with legislative, executive and 
judicial departments, founded apparently upon the popular 
will, and in full and harmonious operation. 

2d — The entire exclusion from all the States of this Con- 
federate government of all Federal authority. There were 
neither i ederal officers, nor were any courts open, nor reve- 
nues collected, nor w^as there any sway of Federal laws or 
Constitution. 

3d — The subversion of the military authority of the Gov- 
ernment was accompUshed by the seizure of their forts, 
arsenals, navy yards, and the destruction or seizure of our 
vessels. 

This, then, was the condition of our country at the begin- 
ning of Mr. Lincoln's first term. 

In addition to this, the army and navy had been corrupt- 
ed and destroyed by the treason of its officers. Our ships 
were scattered or destroyed ; our army traitorously surren- 
dered or. disarmed ; our arsenals stripped, and our Treasury 
robbed of money and our credit destroyed. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 7 

Mr. Lincoln's approach to the capital was beset by peril, 
and disguise and secrecy were necessary to preserve him 
from threatened violence and assassination. 

His tirst step was to call to his aid, as the chief of his 
Cabinet, the distinguished and accomplished statesman, who 
liad been his rival before the convention, who magnani- 
mously accepted, and who has been from that day his most 
trusted counsellor, whose wisdom and skill hfis preserved us 
from the dangers of foreign intervention, and who now lies 
in extreme peril, struck down if not by the same weapon, 
by the same brutal, cowardly and ferocious c-onspiracy, 
which aimed a surer blow at the life of the Chief Magistrate. 

It may not be inappropriate here to say, that of the other 
candidates for the Presidency, the noble and lamented 
Douglas came at once and most heartily to the support of 
the Government, evincing a spirit of patriotism which was 
the crowning glory of his life, and that the false and traitor- 
ous Breckinridge hastened to the support of the rebel stand- 
ard, and is now with its desperate chief calling upon the 
caverns to hide him, and the mountains and the rocks to fall 
upon him. 

The administration of the President was from the outset 
distinguished lor its moderate policy. In his first Inaugu- 
ral he announced that no constitutional rights were to be 
invaded, but that the integrity of the country was to be re- 
stored and preserved — that the forts and strong places which 
had been wi-ested from the Government by violence and 
treason, were to be re-possessed and occupied. How nobly 
and with what steadfast courage he proceeded to fulfil that 
promise, the future historian will record with pride ; and 
how by the heroic valor of our soldiers and sailors, under the 
inspiration of such great and skilful captains as Foote and 
Porter and Farragut, and Thomas and Shernum and Grant, 
and a host of worthy compeers by land and sea, the author- 
ity of the Federal Government has been restored on the 
Chesapeake and Roanoke and Mississippi, at Charleston and 
Savannah and Richmond, until the last echoes of victory at 
Mobile sounded in the ears of the dying President, will be 
the theme of story and song and tradition, throughout this 
wide Republic. 

It was apparent to every reflecting man at the outset, and 
to no one more clearly than to the President, that treason 
was coextensive with the power and influence of the aristo- 
cratic class, and that slavery was the measure of the force of 
the rebellion. It was early seen tliat it was impossible to 
restore the Unio'n and to preserve slavery. The question 
was, however, complicated by the fact that in some of the 



Q AN EULOGY ON 

border States the aristocracy were not strong enough to 
overthrow the authority of the Federal Government, and in 
these States a considerable body of influential slaveholders 
pretended to be firm friends of the Government. To con- 
ciliate this class it was necessary to proceed with caution. 

The flrst step of the President was to advise the States so 
situated to adopt some scheme of gradual emancipation and 
colonization, in which they might be aided by compensation 
to a reasonable extent by the General Government. In the 
early stages of the war this policy would have met the ap- 
proval of Congress and the country. On this plan of com- 
pensation slavery was al)olished in the District of Columljia. 
The States interested, however, failed to adopt the recom- 
mendation. Maryland preferred to catch a few negroes 
under the fugitive slave law in the District of Columbia, 
and was soon after forced by the progress of events to adopt 
uncompensated emancipation. 

The next step was the proclamation, in which, referring 
to this profi'er of national aid and its refusal by the States, 
the President warns the rebellious States that if tliey persist 
in their rebellion an hundred days, he will be compelled to 
declare the freedom of the slaves in all States and parts of 
States continuing in rebellioii. 

At the expiration of the time limited the President did 
issue his Emancipation Proclamation, upon his own judg- 
ment and responsibility, and upon it, as the most important 
act in his illustrious career, he might well rest his reputa- 
tion as a statesman, and fearlessly invoke the favor of heaven. 

As a necessary sequence the policy of arming the negroes 
to tight for the freedom which was promised them, was 
adopted. It encountered strong opposition and deep preju- 
dice, but its wisdom and necessity have been most amply 
vindicated. This great epic would have been quite incom- 
plete if we had not seen the negro soldiery guarding rebel 
prisoners. 

The amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery 
forever, is the crowning act in this grand series of events. 
That it will be adopted by the States and become a part of 
the Constitution, there is no longer room to doubt — a con- 
summation devoutly to be wished. 

That the President was slow and cautious in taking the 
several steps towards this logical conclusion is true ; but 
when taken he has been as firm as adamant — no persuasion 
or threat has ever induced him to take a single step back- 
ward. No man ever held more tenaciously to a proposition 
which he believed to be just and right than Abraham Lin- 
coln. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 9 

Tlie war has been waged by the rebels with characteristic 
(•nielty. PubHc opinion within the limits of their States 
has been controlled by violence and murder. No adherent 
of the Government could express a loyal sentiment and be 
safe in his person or his property. Untold enormities and 
outrag-es have been connnitted upon the loyalists of the bor- 
der States — outrages which shock the moral sense and are 
past human belief. The treatment of the colored troops 
taken in battle has rivalled in cruelty the treatment of pris- 
oners in the most barbarous lands. The enormities at Fort 
Pillow and Fort Wagner are a disgrace to human nature. 

The deliberate starvation of prisoners — not excused by 
any necessity — but starvation in the midst of abundance, is 
unjiaralleled in the history of modern warfare. The cruelty 
which begets idiocy and madness— the loathsome and pesti- 
lential dungeon — the foul air — the criminal neglect which 
makes the returned prisoners mere wrecks of humanity, 
should make the leaders of this rebellion accursed wherever 
civilization is known. Yet, notwithstanding all this, and 
the superadded insolence of the rebel government, retalia- 
tion has not l^een resorted to, although it would have been 
most amply justified. 

The moderation of the President was no less conspicuous 
in the treatment of Northern sympathizers with this re- 
bellion. From the outset there has been a party at the 
North whose sympathy with the aristocracy was notorious 
and unconcealed. They have spared no effort to weaken 
the power and authority of the Government, to destroy the 
public credit and to compel a disastrous and dishonorable 
peace.- They have been at all times ready to sacrifice our 
nationality and consent to a hollow aiul delusive truce, leav- 
ing all the elements of discord in full force and vitality. 
They have cheated the people with the false and delusive 
cry that their liberties were in danger, that the safeguards 
uf civil rights were ])eing overthrown, that the laws were set 
at defiance by our rulers, and that revolutiorrary resistance 
was necessaiy to lire vent the Government from assuming 
despotic power. They have stigmatized the Picsident and 
his advisers as corrupt and tyrannous, — accusing him aiul 
them of rioting upon the s])oil of an oppressed and plundered 
])cople. Liberty of speech a,nd of the press were said to be 
threatened, while every day the one was noisy, slanderous 
and vehement, and the other running to the extremes of the 
most unrestrained license. 

It was in the face of sucli accusations that the President 
ajjpealed to the people for the approval of a second election, 
and their unshaken confidence was expressed by a triimiph- 
ant re-election. 
2 



10 AN EULOGY ON 

Meantime there lias been no noisy advocate of peace so 
sincerel}' desirous of securing; a safe and honorable one as 
the President. He has suffered no passion and no resent- 
ment to stand in the way. The door has been always open. 
Submission to the laws has been the only condition. Could 
any representative of a rightful Government demand less ? 
He was always ready to meet any advances, formal or in- 
formal, with frankness and cordiality. When he had pro- 
claimed the freedom of the slaves in rebel States, and had 
invited them to take arms in defence of promised freedom, 
was it possible for an honest ruler to accept any terms, or 
listen to any terms which did not secure to them this right 'i 
Most certainly not. He insisted upon the same terms when 
the rebel power was apparently unbroken, which he was 
ready to grant when the rebel capital was in his power, and 
the rebel armies scattered in defeat. 

The second inaugural of Mr. Lincoln attests his modera- 
tion, humility and justice. There is nothing in it boastful, 
arrogant or menacing. There is no rancor, no unkindness 
to enemies ; but there is the same fixed determination never 
to yield until the integrity of the nation is restored and 
acknowledged. It seems to us now to have been pronounced 
under the deep shadow of his impending fate. 

But success has finally crowned our arms. No consider- 
able or formidable rebel army remains in the field. One 
by one their strongholds have been yielded up to our victo- 
rious leaders. The rebel capital, fortified with the utmost 
care and skill — defended with desperate courage — in hold- 
ing which to the last extremity, both pride and safety were 
involved, is at last in our hands — the prize'jof equal valor — 
equal skill — greater pertinacity and superior power. The 
rebel armies are scattered and destroyed. Their greatest 
soldier has found his master, and yields to fate. The rebel 
credit has fallen so low that its worthless promises are scat- 
tered to the winds. The rebel President and Cabinet are 
fugitives and eoon will be vagabonds, most anxious to escape 
the just vengeance of .their deluded followers and victims, 
which will pursue them with justly excited wrath. 

In the midst of all these triumphs — triumphs for which 
with patient endurance he had waited through the anxious 
days and sleepless nights of the last ibur years, bearing dis- 
appointment and defeat and loss, taunted, defied, maligned, 
slandered, and betrayed by friends, the moderation and jus- 
tice of the President was more conspicuous than ever before 
—it became magnanimity — generosity — we almost feared 
lest it might degenerate into weakness. 

On the 14th day of April, 1861^ Major Anderson and his 
gallant followers, having saluted with all honor the old flag 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 11 

whicli Had floated over Fort Sumter, hauled it down, and to 
the sound of martial music marched out of the Fort, sur- 
rendering it to the armed forces of the Rebellion. On the 
same anniversary four years later, at the command of his 
Government, General Anderson, who had watched with 
vestal vigilance the sacred emblem of his country's power, 
returned to raise the same old flag with triumphant honors 
over the battered walls of the recovered fortress. It was a 
memorable day, and hundreds of patriotic citizens had gone 
to the harbor of Charleston to take part in the glorious 
pageant, the sign and token of the restored sovereignty of 
the Nation. Tliat intervening four years had been tor that 
Nation a period of bitter, unrelenting, dangerous strife — of 
civil war, ennol)led indeed by a noble cause — a war in de- 
fence of Free Institutions assailed by the mad ambition of 
lawless traitors, asserted by the sword — a war in behalf of 
true Democracy and popular rights, against the preten- 
tions of an aristocratic class — asserted by the sword. In 
that long and bloody controversy, the blood of our bravest 
and noblest youth had been poured out like water and their 
unburied bones were l)leaching upon an hundred battle- 
flelds — into almost every family had come mourning and 
anguish and vacant places about many happy hearth-stones. 
On that day, in the Nation's Capital our victories had been 
celebrated with unwonted demonstrations of joy, because 
victory had brought peace to an afflicted Nation, and its re- 
turn was hailed with bonflres and illumination, with the 
ringing of bells and the flring of cannon, and every token 
of delight. 

The President, with his family and familar friends, had 
joined the happy crowd of citizens who hurried to the 
theatre to witness the public spectacle. He sought relief 
from the oppression of public duty and business — and he 
sought pleasure and relaxtion where the people sought it. 
On that day he had attended a protracted session of his 
Cabinet council, in which the terms of amnesty and peace 
had been discussed, and where he had labored with his 
wonted kindness and assiduity to secure for the rebel 
States and people the most liberal concessions and the 
most favorable terms of peace. On that day the Pres- 
dent had reached tlie sunnnit of human glory, and the bril- 
liant lights of the theatre shone upon the hai)py faces of an 
admiring crowd of citizens, his neighbors and friends — the 
bursting music and the ringing cheers were vocal with the 
spirit of a preserved Union and new national life. In such an 
hour of hope and joy and exultation, the tatal blow of the 
assasin was struck ! For four years of deadly struggle and 
bitter passions, the President had walked by day and night 



12 AN EULOGY ON 

sate and unharmed amid the daggers of assassins ! And 
now in the first dawn and promise of peace, when all re- 
sentment had passed from his memory — when all his soul 
was mercy and forgiveness ; and all his energies were given 
to the work of restoring concord and fraternal feeling, all 
unconscious of danger and unsuspicious of enmity, in the 
face of his family and surrounded by his friends, in the peace- 
ful enjoyment of a public spectacle, he meets the fatal blow, 
and in an instant the silver cord is loosed and the golden 
bowd is broken. Never during the last eighteen hundred 
years of the world's history has such a tragedy been enacted 
on the human stage ! 

Who is this assassin f 

Who is this blood}'' criminal, who in the nineteenth century, 
and in our Repuljlic, would bring back the barbarity of the 
corrupt Roman Empire, the dagger and poison of the Italian 
States, the sliar]) and sudden remedies of the Muscovite or 
the Turk ? Who is this mad assassin, who with the bloody 
knife in his hand, and the mockery of " l^io iSemq)er Tyran- 
7iis " upon his lips, after the foul murder of the very fore- 
most man of all his age, in the assertion of human liberty, 
lea})S upon the stage as if to challenge the admiration and de- 
mand tlie plaudits. of the audience '( 

He is, evidently, no common murderer, who, stimulated 
by the hope of plunder, or instigated by passion or revenge, 
by jealousy or hate, seeks the lite of his victim. Such crim- 
inals seek the cover of darkness and of secret places for their 
murderous w^ork. 

It is the hateful and, abhorred system which produced 
this war — which starves and mutilates prisoners — which 
taints its chief promoters with personal dishonor, and the 
deep damnation of treason and broken oaths, which breeds 
such assassins. Violence and robbery and murder are its 
distinguishing characteristics, even in peace. 

But this blow was struck by a Northern sympathizer — 
the son of a loyal State. His support, encouragement and 
})rotection is from Northern sympathizers, living under the 
protection of the Government, Avhose Chief Magistrate is 
thus brutally murdered. His prejudices and passions have 
been fed by the rancor of Northern speech, and excited 
by the licence of a Northern press. And he has been taught 
by these that the President was an usurper and tyrant, 
whose destruction was justifiable for the safety of the State. 
He seeks a refuge and asylum with the men whose counsels 
and sympathy have encouraged tlie crime, and who now ap- 
palled and overawed by its blackness and enormity are sit- 
ting in the seats of the mourners. They realize, and justly, 
how it darkens tlic- prospects of returning Peace. They see 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 13 

ill it the re-awakening of slumberino; passions and the return 
of the intense hate of civil strife. They hear the threatening 
voice of vengeance in phaco of the mild accents of forgive- 
ness and mercy, and witli ns they sit down in the shadow of 
this great crime and weep. 

I do not mean to inculpate in this foul crime the body of 
Northern opponents of the war — far from it ; but I do 
mean to say that the rancor and intolerance of unreasoning 
partisans, and rebel sympathizers, of whom there are not a 
few, have shar})ened wittingly or unwittingly tlie assassin's 
knife ! And I do mean to say that it is time to pause and 
reflect upon such teachings as I have referred to. 

If this murder, however, is the result of a deliberate con- 
spiracy on the part of the rebel leaders or government, its 
execution was most untimely, and its results will be disas- 
trous. They have slain their most generous friend and pow- 
erful advocate, and have disabled his ablest counsellor and 
supporter. Well and justly did the rebel Commissioner 
(Quid) exclaim, that it was the most fatal blow the Confed- 
eracy had received. Its effect upon loyal sentiment and the 
conditions of peace, are already apparent. The peo])le will 
now be satisfied with nothing short of the absolute destruc- 
tion of the aristocratic element, and the disfranchisement, 
1)anishment, or blood (»f its leaders. The class which breeds 
traitors to free institutions, which begets war and violence, 
which finally resorts to brutal assassination and murder to 
promote success or avenge defeat, must be relentlessly crush- 
ed ; they must have no further voice or influence in this 
Government — this measure of justice they have secured for 
themselves. 

The administrati<»n of the late President has been, and 
will be recorded l)y the historian, as the most important and 
the most illustrious in our history. The fame of Washing- 
ton rests rather u]>on his gaining our liljerties in the field 
than upon his administration of the Government after- 
wards, although tliat was marked with wisdom, sagacity and 
integrity. The past administration has secured to the ])eo- 
ple the rights and liberties to which our great charter de 
dared them entitled. It has, I trust, secured these e(pial 
civil rights to all the ijeojiile. There should be no distinc- 
tions in the future except those founded upon merit alone^ 
If all the rights, of all the people, are secured, then these 
most costly sacrifices of blood — this grand (.'rowning sacrifice, 
arc not in vain. The men who fight the battles of the Re- 
pu1)lic are the men who should take part in the selection of 
its rulers. In the language of a great captain — " The hand 
that fights the battles of the country, has a right to govern 
it." 



14: AN EULOGY ON 

It is lit and proper that I should say sometliing on this 
occasion of the personal character of the late President. I 
come, however, '" to huri/ Csesar — not to praise him," and I 
shall say nothing here over his open grave which I might 
not truthfully say if he was still among the living. You 
well remember how pertinaciously and ruthlessly he has 
been assailed by the Southern press as " tyrant," " usurper," 
and other foul epithets ; how cruelty, corruption and deceit 
were imputed to him ; how lie was represented as thirsting 
for blood and holding his brutal orgies upon the battle field, 
still covered with the unburied corses of the slain ; how 
malignity and hate and venality were represented as the 
striking characteristics of his nature. In the madness of par- 
ty these, and the like charges and epithets, found too many 
and too ready echoes in the Northern press. But his mod- 
eration in success, his magnanimity, his justice, his profound 
desire for an honorable peace, his freedom from resentment 
and hate, his large charity, so abundantly manifested du- 
ring the last few weeks, had silenced and disarmed his slan- 
derers and revilers and upon all such gross and unjust accu- 
sations Death has now set the seal of forgetfulness forever. 

His manners were marked for their extreme simplicity and 
genuine kindliness. There was no taint or spot of arrogance 
or insolence — no pride of place — no pretention — no assump- 
tion of superiority. If he had not the refinement of educa- 
tion, nor the artificial polish of society, yet he never repelled 
a child, nor crimsoned the cheek of a woman, nor wounded 
the self-respect of man. He was temperate and abstemious 
in his habits. He was untiring in his industry and unre- 
mitting in his attention to public afifairs — thoroughly con- 
versant with the details of business and devoting more 
hours to labor and fewer to recreation and indulgence than 
any member of the Government. 

If he was wanting in the learning of the schools, he w^as 
by no means deficient in practical sagacity, sense and wis- 
dom, and there was a freshness and vigor in his thoughts, a 
truthful homeliness in his illustrations, a peculiar plainness 
and quaintness in his expressions wdiich gave to his speecli 
all the charms of eloquence. His thorough frankness, hon- 
esty and earnestness never left his sentences of doubtful in- 
terpretation. 



H 



e was — 

" Rich in saving common sense, 
And as the greatest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime." 

His friends have sometimes conceded that he was vacilla- 
ting, hesitating — lacking in vigor, firmness and decision in 
his counsels and policy. There was never a greater mis- 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 15 

take. Altlioiigli inexperienced in politics, and although he 
called about him able and experienced men, yet his own 
views of public policy iiivariably prevailed in his Cabinet. 
So I have reason to believe that the crowning act of his ad- 
ministration, tlie proclamation of emancipation, found fee- 
Ijle support at the time, and was issued against the counsel 
of some of his most trusted ministers. Pertinacity, and not 
vacillation, was the distinguishing quality of his mind. He 
was patient in waiting for the })roper time to unfold his 
policy, but resolute and determined in his purpose to exe- 
cute it when the fit occasion ofi'ered. The Iron Duke was 
not more fitly described as " of iron nerve, to true occasion 
true," than was the late President. 

A love of justice — perfect fairness and freedom from pre- 
judice and passion— -was a distinguished trait of Mr. Lin- 
coln's character. Mr. Seward describes him as " the best 
man he ever knew." In some of the darker days of our 
struggle, when many hearts were despondent, a person emi- 
nent in the litej-ary history of our country, never an aspirant 
for political distinction, but full of patriotic ardor, wrote as 
follows :— -" I should be real glad to know how your patri- 
otic faith bides all our trials, our successes and failures, our 
disappointments and delays. I have in all chances and 
changes one inexpressable consolation— -a faith in our father 
Abraham as unswerving as the Israelites in theirs, and foun- 
ded on the same rock— -that God is on his side. How glo- 
rious that we should have such a President in these sordid 
and selfish times, 

' Whose armor is his honpst thouglit 
And simple truth his utmost skill, 
Whose conscience is his strong retreat.' 

"I could go on quoting line after line that describes the 
godly man, and my conviction that lie was given to us at 
this time by miraculous intervention. And this I hail as a 
sure token that the great objects of this struggle are to be 
attained ; that the wringing of hearts and pouring out of 
blood is not to be in vain ; that every slave is to be set free, 
and the glorious institutions of our country to be preserved 
and humanity to be redeemed by them." 

We all reniember liow in the conduct of this war, in its 
earlier stages, the President waited with the most exemplary 
patience upon incapacity and failure and inaction, with a de- 
termination to give every j>erson whom he had selected for 
a responsible place, the fullest opportunity to demonstrate 
his fitness and capacity. His judgments were just, but al- 
ways tempered l)y charity and mercy. 

No man liad a heart more full of kindness and sympathy. 
Taste and sentiment in him were not developed by cultiva- 



16 AN EULOGY ON 

tion, by poetry or iiction ; but he had the largest syni])athy, 
and his frequent presence in the hospitals and his words of 
cheerful kindness to the sick and wounded, always filled the 
wards with warmth and sunlight. 

We have lost the Man and the Magistrate, 

" Who reverenced his conscience as his king ; 
Whose glory was redressing human wrong : 

We have lost him, he is gone ! 
Wo know him now ; all narrow jealousies 
Are silent ; and we see him as he moved, 
How modest, kindly, all compassioned, wise, 
With what sublime repression of himself. 
And in what limits, and how tenderly ; 
Not swaying to this faction, or to that; 
Not making his high place the lawless perch 
Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground 
For pleasure ; but through all this tract of years 
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life 
Amid a thonsand peering littlenesses." 

Such was the ma^ whom the Nation mourns to-day. I 
need not, I am sure, spijak to you of the depth and sincerity 
of the peoples' sorrow at his loss. It is felt at once as a 
public calamity and a private sorrow. I read it in the sor- 
rowful faces before me ; I see it in the long procession — in 
the draped and drooping flags ; I hear it in the sad and 
solemn strains of music — in the slowly booming guns ; I feel 
it in the very depths of my soul, and I know that your 
hearts beat in unison with mine. The dark and deep sorrow 
of this great loss settles down upon every hearth-stone, and 
clothes the habitations of a whole people, high and low, rich 
and poor, in mourning for a common loss. 

He is gone — but he has left us the rich inheritance of a 
redeemed and regenerate and free country. The great blot 
upon our escutcheon, the great stain upon our National 
character, the great source of strife and contention among 
our "people, by his courage and fortitude, has been wiped out 
and removed. His name has become historic. 

" Such was he : his work is done ! 
But while the races of mankind endure. 
Let his great example stand 
Colossal, seem of every land, 
And keep the soldier brave, the statesman pure ; 
Till in all lands and thro' all human story 
The path of duty be the path to glory. 
And let the land whose hearths he saved from shame 
For many and many an age proclaim 
At civic revel, pomp and game ; 
And when the long illumined cities flame 
Their ever-loyal honest leader's fame 
With honor, honor, honor, honor to him. 
Eternal honor to his name." 



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